How a Train Bento Box is Made in Japan

this is how a japanese train bento was made so i've always wondered how a japanese train bento was made and luckily the folks at jr tokai passengers have let me in and show me how it's made this video is part of my new series called made in japan where i go in and show you how truly things are done here in japan i'm so excited to show you this but before i start if you want to see what i'm doing on the daily check out my instagram account if you want to help support the channel definitely check out the tokyo merch and if you have any questions about japan or your japan travels check out my discord community all right let's go inside of the factory if you've ever eaten a japanese train bento good chances it was made by jr tokai passengers they sell bento boxes onigiri and otsumami sets at tokaido shinkansen stations employing about 530 staff to make this all happen and today i'm taking you into the heart of it where trained bentos are made in japan at their tokyo show me factory so i've made it inside the building let's go see inside of the factory excuse me can i go in the factory with you all right all right we're in so the factory is quite thorough and meticulous about preventing staff from introducing contaminants bacteria dust etc into the factory so they enforce strict policies on dress code cleanliness and sanitation which is i'm sure comfort to many of their customers to start the bento making process the ingredients are received in the loading dock every single box from vendors must be inspected they inspect about 250 to 300 boxes every day so after the inspection boxes are brought to the refrigerators and freezers boxes are organized by category like meat and pickles so that the staff can quickly access the ingredients now the preparation process begins wrap packages like these are taken out of the boxes and sterilized in this area vegetables are peeled by hand then they're washing an electrolyzed water tank finally they're placed in this machine to spin dry there's a door just behind me let's see what's in this room oh he's cutting fish apparently the ingredients are all cut by hand and each one is counted in order to prepare just the right amount based on how many bentos are being made that day now that all the ingredients are sliced up the cooking process begins this is the boiler area japanese boiled dishes are cooked in these giant bats oh that's taki noko in english bamboo shoots let's talk to that guy excuse me can i ask you a question like how much food is made at one time what is your favorite food to make what is to cook the pumpkins the workers also use a special oven so this is where they grill the fish check it out [Music] the temperature and duration the food is cycled through the grill are precisely said to ensure food is cooked perfectly each and every time but just in case the temperature is also checked when it comes out [Music] and this is the fried section definitely my favorite place in the factory right now pork katsu is being fried for their spicy masala katsu curry sandwich wow that looks so crispy [Music] immediately after frying the katsu is dipped into the curry sauce i can watch this all day other foods like karage fried shrimp and koroke are also cooked in this fried oasis after all the food is fried it's then cut into pieces and ready for the bento boxes alright so this is where all the rice is made and packed a bento box wouldn't be complete without rice so it's no surprise that this factory makes 260 kilograms of rice about 570 pounds every day i guess workers here always have a rice day look at all these machines this giant pot itself can make up to 13 kilograms about 28 and a half pounds of rice so in order to fill the day's demand the factory utilize a team of rice cookers the rice is then spread out by hand to help air it out so it's nice and fluffy when it goes into the bento boxes the factory also produce a flavored rice this one in particular is asari no taki komikohan clam flavored rice it's used in one of their popular bentos fukugawa meishi rice isn't just for bentos but it's also used to make onigiri the japanese rice ball if you don't already know japanese love their onigiri the fact we make about 2 000 onigiris every day so this machine makes these square rice beds and then the fillings are added on top by hand afterwards the machine takes the filled rice beds and presses it into a triangle shape and finally adds the wrapping [Music] depending on the type of onigiri though the seaweed is sometimes done by hand i think this one is chicken bowl i hope you're enjoying the tour but before i continue on i want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor for this video boksu if you don't already know books will provide a gourmet experience of japanese snacks delivered to your front door they work with traditional japanese factories over 100 years old to provide you with unique snacks and each monthly box has its own unique theme so you get new snacks each and every time first time users will get a seasons of japan box and after that you'll get a theme box like this one this month is box's fifth birthday so it includes staff's favorite snacks which takes you on a tour of five japanese prefectures off the beaten path as always you get 10 to 25 snacks in your box depending on the package you choose and they're all hand picked from all over japan to deliver you unique and local japanese flavors so get 10 off your own authentic japanese snack box from boku and save up to 47 using my code palo 10 and link in the description that said let's continue on with this tour wow look at that guy over there i wonder what he's doing let's go ask him excuse me can i ask you a question hi so it looks like everything's been refrigerated so now all we have to do is wait till this evening all right we're back it is after 1am in the morning and look at all of these people hard at work let's see what they're doing now it's time to finish up the plating and complete the final product to ship out the bentos as fresh as possible on the day the factory plates all of the bento boxes after midnight each worker is responsible for one task on the production line it's amazing to see how many different dishes are all packed into one bento box and the factory makes different kinds of bentos every night so when one bento product is completed the workers restock a different set of dishes in preparation to box the next one in total about 8 000 bento boxes are made at the factory every day but due to coronavirus it's about half that now holidays are the most busy as that's when customers are traveling the most on trains so during this time they make up to 10 000 bentos per day at the end of the production line two workers are paired to inspect every single product before final packaging what do you look for during the inspection after the inspection the bentos are cleared for the automatic packaging machine [Music] once packaged the finished products are then moved to the shipping prep area each product has a barcode which needs to be scanned into the system when scanned the system notifies the worker by a flashing number above the shelves in which basket to stock the product the number on the display represents how many items to stock and each basket on the shelf represents a store location this is amazing there's just so much food here let's go check out some more after midnight bentos are not the only product being made foods like sandwiches and onigiri are also being ready for morning delivery let's have a look at the sandwiches first cutting the bread crust by machine [Music] and spreading the margarine as well other ingredients like mustard katsu and lettuce are added by hand once the sandwich is completed it's processed through an automatic slicer [Music] then package one by one again by hand [Music] then the sandwiches are wrapped by machine to complete the process oh and some onigiri needs some extra topping love so this is done by hand as well this made in japan tour wouldn't be complete if i didn't show you the back office wow even all of the office workers are suited up it's pretty awesome excuse me what are you doing how do you decide what goes into a bento during the interview did they test you by making you taste food blindfolded so this is where all the new products are born the development room the team comes up with new ideas creates test products and conducts taste tests they'll even create products many times until it's perfect and ready for mass production one of the most important things to check is whether or not the food tastes good when it's cold because bento boxes are made to be eaten cold what are you testing today how is the prototype coming along so back to the factory finally from 3 am delivery workers start to load the trucks for morning deliveries so that the bentos are ready in stores for customers just before the earliest bullet trains start running all right so that is how a japanese train bento is made let me know what you thought in the comments also let me know what you thought of my made in japan series i'll be doing more if you guys like this video help me out and hit that like button and if you want to see more japan videos or anything related to japan hit that subscribe button in the button and i'll catch you guys in the next one

Channel: Paolo fromTOKYO

Views: 533,530

Rating: 4.9790235 out of 5

Keywords: Paolo, Japan, Japan guide, Japan travel, japanese bento, ekiben shinkansen, japanese train bento, japanese lunch box, japanese food tour, bullet train japan, japan bento, train bento, japanese food, japanese factory, japanese food documentary, Jr tokai Passengers, bento factory, made in japan, ekiben, bento box, how to make bento box, train station bento, best bento box, japan bento box, japan bento box lunch, bento, factory tour, japan factory tour, shinkansen, jr train

Id: eBPsaa0_RtQ

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Remny]

Was wondering how much one of those boxes cost. The one in the thumbnail is ¥1180 incl. VAT (so $10.83). And when looking at all those ingredients and hand made process that seems like a pretty fair price IMO.

[u/Just_made_this_now]

There's something uncanny about the narration.

[u/UthoughtIwasGone]

Paolo does good videos but I can't stand them.

[u/Brittlehorn]

If you’ve ever travelled long distance on trains in the uk you know that this food and it’s careful preparation is in a different universe. They probably cost the same as well.

[u/Syheriat]

One of the worst hosts I've seen in a while. Too bad, seemed interesting but couldn't watch it for more than a minute.

[u/TomDoniphon54]

Damn- makes me wonder if the US food companies are that hygienic !

[u/yognautilus]

Love Paolo's vids but goddang I still can't get over the fact that he named his kid Wolverine. In Japan, too, where kids will find any excuse to relentlessly bully other kids.

[u/lolnoob1459]

God this is making miss vacations so much.

[u/nonsensicalcriticism]

the cleanliness blows me away